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240 THE DECLINE AND FALL CHAPTEB XXX Hei'olt of the Got lis — Tkei/ phmder Greece — Two great Invasions of Italy bi/ Alaric and Radagaisns — They are repulsed by Stilicho — The Germans overrun Gaul — Usurpation oj" Constaniine in the West — Disgrace and Death of Stilicho Kavoit of their the subjects of Rome could be ignorant of their obhgations A.D. 390 to the great Theodosius, they were too soon convinced how painfully the spirit and abilities of their deceased emperor had supported the frail and mouldering edifice of the republic. He died in the month of January ; and before the end of the winter of the same year the Gothic nation was in amis.^ The Barbarian auxiliai'ies erected their independent standard ; and boldly avowed the hostile designs which they had long cherished in their ferocious minds. Their countrymen, who had been con- demned by the conditions of the last treaty to a life of tran- quillity and labour, deserted their farms at the fii-st sound of the trumpet, and eagerly resumed the weapons which they had reluctantly laid down. The barriers of the Danube were thrown open ; the savage warriors of Scythia issued from their forests ; and the uncommon severity of the winter allowed the poet to remark " that they rolled their ponderous waggons over the broad and icy back of the indignant river".- The unhappy natives of the provinces to the south of the Danube submitted to the calamities which, in the course of twenty years, were almost groA^Ti femiliar to their imagination : and the various troops of Barbarians who gloried in the Ciothic name were irregularly spread from the woody shores of Dalraatia to the 1 The revolt of the Goths and the blockade of Constantinople are distinctly mentioned by Claudian (in Rufin. 1. ii. 7-100), Zosimus (1. v. p. 292 [c. 5]), and Jomandes (de Rebus Geticis, c. 29). [Alaric approached 'Constantinople, but did not blockade it. Cp. Keller, Stilicho, p. 31.] 2 .'lii per terga ferocis Danubii solidata ruunt e.xpertaque remis Frangunt stagna rotis [ii>. 26]. Claudian and Ovid often amuse their fancy by interchanging the metaphors and properties of liquid water and solid ice. Much false wit has been expended in this easy exercise.